


Landslide

by littlemisstpk



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Hanahaki Disease, M/M, Near Death, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-15 22:40:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19305280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlemisstpk/pseuds/littlemisstpk
Summary: Tsukishima Kei first sees the flowers when he sees Hinata with Kageyama. As much as he tries to avoid him, Hinata always makes himself known.





	Landslide

**Author's Note:**

> I hit a bit of a slump, so when I saw the prompt Hanahaki AU and heard the song [Landslide by Fleetwood Mac](https://youtu.be/WM7-PYtXtJM), this kinda came out fully formed in a single sitting.

The first time that Tsukishima Kei saw the flowers, he was in his third year. Hinata had just scored the winning point against Shiratorizawa in the finals, and in the adrenaline rush that came with winning a spot to nationals once again, he jumped on Kageyama, stunning the crowd with a passionate celebration kiss. For a moment, Kei could almost believe that it was Kageyama's proximity that made him the target of such a display, but when Kageyama hoisted Hinata closer and returned the kiss, it was too much for him to bear.

He barely made it to the bathroom before he became sick; the daffodils came fast and fierce, leaving him breathless and surprised, which gave way to defeat and dread.

"Tsukki, are you in here?" Yamaguchi's voice echoed through the public bathroom where Kei holed himself up. With a quick flush of the toilet, Kei stood up and left the stall to face his best friend.

As he turned the quick corner, Yamaguchi's face fell from being curious to concerned, and Kei snapped, "Shut up, Yamaguchi," with a little more bite than normal. Facing the row of sinks, he caught a stray petal stuck to his chin, and quickly discarded it in favour of splashing his face with cold water. The chill washed away the sweat that had formed on Kei's brow, but it did nothing to ease the tightness that was taking root in his chest.

* * *

Kei knew all the stories about Hanahaki disease. Akiteru had relayed them with a passion he had only seen when talking about volleyball, where the sufferer who felt true unrequited love would harbour a plant in their chest that would cause them to vomit flowers, and often was fatal. As a child, Kei would gag as Akiteru sighed about the romantic nature of it all, but as a veritable bouquet of daisies filled his bedroom garbage can before he could make it to the toilet, he couldn't help but think that Akiteru was full of shit for actually cheering this experience on.

He had small blessings in his life, in the form of the object of his affections was too stupid to be in any of Kei's classes, and Yachi nurtured Hinata's ability to retain information for his exams, leaving Kei unneeded as a tutor. It didn't stop Kageyama yelling at him when he stopped trying as hard because of the light-headedness, or Yamaguchi looking at him with worried glances that he could never fully shut down.

The worst was when Hinata tracked him down during lunch time despite Yamaguchi's interference.

"You're losing weight." Hinata slammed the bento down on Kei's desk, straddling the chair in the row ahead to bravely look him directly in the eye.

Kei tilted his head, and shot back, "Unlike you, I don't eat like a wild animal getting its first meal in a week every single day." Kei's chest tightened in an uncomfortably familiar way, and he rose from his seat to make his way to the bathroom, he faintly heard Yamaguchi pleading with Hinata.

"Well, fuck you too, Meanyshima!"

The yellow roses that came that day hurt more than the normal flowers, the thorns getting stuck in his throat.

* * *

Kei hated how much his life now revolved around volleyball, and by extension, Hinata. In the two-and-a-half years that Kei knew the orange bundle of energy, he was always fearless and determined to get what he wanted, and could encourage the team to put in the most effort. It was the main reason that Hinata was the captain of the team.

As Kei sat on the sidelines, his head spinning and his chest tight from lack of air, he watched as Hinata yelled loudly at Kageyama about something stupid and inconsequential, which was only stopped by Yamaguchi's pleas for peace in the gym.

It was happening more and more, these stupid fights. While snow began to dust the ground outside and nationals loomed ever larger, Kei couldn't help but feel dread as he was able to do less and less before he was sidelined, hiding his gasps for air under a towel draped over his head. It was most likely said towel blocking his vision that he wasn't aware of Hinata approaching him until he saw the small volleyball shoes enter his field of vision.

"Get up, lazy ass. You're needed on the court." In a relatively short time, Hinata actually became aware of the motivating factor essential to his being, and took lessons from the King.

Still, it did nothing to unclench the vines' grip on his lungs, instead making it worse. Kei slowly rose, pausing just long enough for the blood to settle. "I didn't know that we needed to have two dictators on the court. The King is already hard to deal with." Kei strode towards the gym door, shooting a rude gesture at Hinata's squawking behind him, and changing into his outdoor shoes before leaving the building.

He had barely made it halfway up the path before the yellow tulips came forth, piling against the railing. Kei jolted at the tentative touch against his shoulders, only to find Yachi looking at him with a sympathetic frown.

"You know there's a surgery, if you can't confess, right?"

Kei knew it well; it was the one part of the stories that Akiteru openly disliked. The surgery saved a person's life, but they went through life without feeling anything romantic at all. Kei supposed that the surgery would take him back to the purgatory that was his third year of middle school, before he had rediscovered his love of volleyball. Still, there was a part of him that  _ hoped,  _ as childish as it was.

He turned to face the small manager, who had faint tears in her eyes, and silently mourned her lost love. "Who was it?" Kei asked.

"Shimizu-san," Yachi replied, almost inaudibly.

Kei brought her close into a hug, and felt his eyes well up as Yachi silently sobbed against his chest.

* * *

With a week left until they left for Tokyo, Hinata and Kageyama had brokered a silent truce. It was silent simply because they weren't talking and kept to opposite ends of the gym, speaking only when needed to make a play. It gave Kei flashbacks to their first year when the two of them came to blows.

Yachi was Kei's godsend, playing interference for him and distracting Hinata while he no longer had Kageyama to bug. Still, the vines wrapped tighter inside his chest every time that Hinata looked in Kei's direction, which was happening with alarming frequency. It was disconcerting to be on the receiving end of Hinata's look usually reserved for determining an opposing team's strategy, but there was a fire in his eyes that Kei hadn't seen in a long time.

Kei stood up, and the dizziness forced him to steady himself against the wall for longer than he normally needed, and when the tunnel vision cleared, Hinata was standing too close to him. Unlike the sharp glances sent towards Kei across the volleyball court, Hinata was standing in front of him with a decidedly softer demeanour.

"Are you going to be all right in time for nationals? You're not looking so good."

The tightness that had become distressingly familiar gripped even tighter, until Kei fought to keep his voice clear. "I'll be fine." He made the familiar walk to get his outdoor shoes, praying that he could make it to a toilet this time.

Unlike every other time that Kei made this trek, Hinata was hot on his heels, chirping something about Kei needing to listen to him. Instead, he sped up his movements, left his shoes with the backs crumpled down in his haste to leave the building. Kei barely made it past the doorway before he lurched forward and marigolds spilled from his lips.

A soft, "Oh," came from behind him. As Kei spun around, Hinata's wide eyes took in the grisly sight before him. "How long?"

Kei stood to his full height, leaning on the door frame for support. "Since we won against Shiratorizawa."

"And who is it?"

Kei didn't answer, except to look Hinata directly in the eyes. His gamble paid off, because the perceptive little shithead actually came through, and connected the dots. Instead of the romantic leaping into Kei's arms and promises to take care of him, he instead watched Hinata quickly put on his shoes, looking like he did when he ran into Ushiwaka at the bathroom back in their first year.

"I-I'm sorry. I just… can't." Hinata was nearly incoherent as he was the one who ran away from the gym at top speed.

Kei let him go.

* * *

Kei collapsed in the first set of the first round. Before he blacked out, Hinata's distraught face and the tears that followed filled his consciousness.

He learned later that Karasuno was eliminated that game.

* * *

He was bedbound and hospitalized in the capital, staring at the stark white walls, the cannula in Kei's nose doing very little to get the needed oxygen to his lungs. He was helpless in his situation, and Kei hated the sterile smell of rubbing alcohol that pervaded the room that reminded him of his own stupidity. It wasn't often that Kei qualified as being dumber than the Idiot Duo, but this really took the cake. He was simply waiting for an operating room to become free for his surgery as hydrangea and gardenia petals gradually fell from his mouth continuously.

Instead, Kei heard a small knock at the door, and in a small voice (the loudest he could manage), he called out, "Come in."

Instead of the nurse Kei expected, he instead saw a nervous Hinata, who was wringing his hands in the absence of something to occupy them. Finding the examination chair quickly, he wheeled it closer to Kei's bedside, until their eyes were on equal level, and Hinata could reach and grab Kei's hand if he wanted to. As it was, the silence was deafening, and Kei focused on the red tear tracks that graced Hinata's face.

"I'm sorry," Hinata started, and then stopped.

Kei was confused. "What do you have to be sorry for? It's not your fault."

A range of emotions flitted across Hinata's face in a split second. "I could have stopped you from being here in the first place." He took Kei's hand into his own, absently stroking it while not taking his eyes from the taller man's.

"How?" Kei croaked, the vines nearly leaping out of his mouth.

"I had broken up with Kageyama for the last time that day I found out. You were always at the center of our fights." Hinata laughed humourlessly. "Apparently I was too concerned with how you were doing for my own good."

Even if Kei could speak properly, he wouldn't have been able to respond. Instead, the tears fell silently.

"I was pretty messed up when you collapsed. You weren't the only one who had to be subbed out." Hinata squeezed his hand, and brought it to his lips. "I couldn't say it then, but better late than never, right?"

As Hinata kissed his hand, Kei's attempt at saying "Yes," instead came out as a strangled cry, and before he lost consciousness again, he faintly heard Hinata yelling for a nurse.

* * *

When Kei woke up groggily, it was to breathe his first proper lungful of air in months. A relieved nurse came into view, remarking, "You're awake." He motioned to his colleague who moved quickly to somewhere outside of the open ward.

"Welcome to the intensive care unit, Tsukishima-kun."

The answer was monotone. "What?" His voice was gravelly from disuse and trauma, but he could form words, which was better than before.

Before the nurse could continue, Akiteru burst into the room, and flung himself against his brother. "You're okay!"

Kei feebly pushed at his brother. "Nii-chan, I just started being able to breathe properly, I don't need you suffocating me."

When the first nurse glared at Akiteru, he pulled back, chastised. "Anyway, because your case was so advanced, when the plant retreated, it nearly killed you. You needed surgery to allow it to escape you properly."

"It retreated…" Kei parroted softly. His right hand pulled slightly at the dressing covering the bottom of his ribcage, undoubtedly to protect his incision from infection. Kei huffed quietly, and a small smile crept onto his face.

His peace was short-lived, as Akiteru let out an excited sound. "That's amazing! Most people have to go through surgery in order to survive!" He clasped his hands together and sighed. "So romantic."

"You're nauseating."

* * *

It was the middle of February, and without the volleyball club to occupy their time, Kei and Hinata instead filled their time with endless studying to do well on their university entrance exams. Their hands were linked together as they made their way to Kei's house, the popular spot simply because he didn't live on the other side of a mountain. The warmth that filled Kei's chest whenever he was around Hinata was a welcome change from the constricting suffocation that had become his norm not long before.

They made it to the bedroom and Kei closed the door while Hinata arranged his notebooks on the desk in an attempt to actually be productive. When Hinata looked over at his boyfriend, he was met with a vaguely hungry stare.

"You're incorrigible. I need to actually study," Hinata pleaded, a slight whine in his voice.

Kei raised his eyebrows, impressed. "Wow, I'm surprised you remember that word."

Hinata puffed up in indignation. "I can learn things, Meanyshima!" 

Kei moved in closer, bending down until his lips were nearly touching Hinata’s ear. "You always retain information better after I get you off, that's for sure."

Hinata's eyes narrowed, but a sly smile spread across his face in agreement. He captured Kei in a kiss, which quickly became more heated.

_ Yeah, _ Kei thought,  _ life is good. _


End file.
